The present invention concerns a transport arrangement for an implement having a frame, and more particularly relates to such arrangements that are releasably connected to an implement frame so as to make the latter mobile in the endwise direction.
Transport arrangements are used to accommodate implements such as sowing machines, ground working tools, crop pick-up arrangements, cutter heads, picker attachments and the like in such a way that they can be towed behind a vehicle. In most cases the implements are those that exceed the maximum allowable width permitted on public roads, and therefor cannot remain in transverse position on the vehicle in public traffic. The vehicle concerned is usually an agricultural tractor, a combine, a forage harvester, a gang mower or the like, that is, the vehicle to which the implement is attached during operation.
Conventionally such transport arrangement uses one-axle or two-axle wagons that contain a longitudinal frame with contact surfaces and that can be connected to a towing hitch provided on the vehicle. Since these transporters must often accommodate implements which together with the transporters have a total working width/transport length of up to 6 meters, they are not only relatively bulky, but their manufacture entails excessively high production costs.
In contrast thereto, German Patent No. 2,644,360 issued Apr. 21, 1977 proposes a transport arrangement in which an adapter is provided at the forward and the rear ends of the implement, when considered in its endwise transport position, to each of which a support having two wheels can be attached. The forward wheeled support includes a tongue adapted to be coupled to a vehicle drawbar.
This transport arrangement has the disadvantage that it requires two wheeled supports and that the two wheeled supports considerably extend the length of the entire rig, which is undesirable in view of the transport mobility.
Another transport arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,483, issued May 31, 1983, as including a pair of wheels mounted in stored positions adjacent one end of the implement, with one wheel being pivotable to a transport position and the other being removable from storage and remountable to the implement in a transport position across from the one wheel so as to support the one end of the implement for being pulled endwise through means of a hitch telescopically attached to the other end of the implement.
While this last mentioned transport arrangement does not significantly add to the transport length of the implement, the implement structure is complicated by the need to provide brackets for storing the wheels and, due to the transport arrangement being attached to or carried by the implement, it is not possible to use the transport arrangement for transporting a different implement.